Transformers: Age of Extinction was made for fans of the franchise. Those who don't enjoy Michael Bay's particular brand of excess and spectacle will be best served to remain at home. Lovers of all things explosions, visual effects marvels, and Autobots will be granted a wealth of all of the above, plus a few intriguing and unexpected twists. At a certain point it may start to feel like too much of a good thing, though.

Said the weakest part of the film is it's length. Which I'm hearing alot of.

Transformers: Age of Extinction has appalling dialogue, deplorable representations of women, un-self-aware action sequences, very little humour and racial stereotyping. In other words, it's a Michael Bay movie.

All I really wanna know is how it stacks against the other 3. Liked the first one a lot, thought ROTF was an abomination, and liked that last Chicago bit of DOTF. If it's better than the last 2 I'll at least give it a shot in theaters

Well, just reading the handful reviews for TF which essentially say, if you're expecting explosions, bad acting, lots of action etc. you're not going to be disappointing doesn't exactly want me to run and go see it.

Well, just reading the handful reviews for TF which essentially say, if you're expecting explosions, bad acting, lots of action etc. you're not going to be disappointing doesn't exactly want me to run and go see it.

If you agree with those critics as they describe those things(I personally thought shia and prime acted fine, with alot of other people hamming it up), as they no doubt described the previous films than that's maybe for the best.

I actually don't mind lots of action, nor do I seek out amazing acting in these sorts of films. Explosions don't bother me. Then again I'm pretty entertained with things like the fast furious films and the raid and these other comedies. Everyone has their own standards I suppose.

Every once in a while, I actually like to go to a mindless action movie, because it is fun to just watch and be entertained. Just like going to a theme park and going on a ride. That is, a almost three hour ride of course lol

I like mindless action to a degree but if it goes on for hours for no compelling reason it gets extremely tedious.

Why is it so hard to make the Autobots/Decepticons engaging characters you emotionally root for/against.

It makes the action so much better.

Ultimately, Bay knows if he lowers the bar low enough movie goers will sit through anything. But these are not the best Transformer movies Hollywood could possibly produce. The whole operation has been on autopilot since TF2.

Why is it so hard to make the Autobots/Decepticons engaging characters you emotionally root for/against.

It makes the action so much better.

They do, it's only a matter of how many you want. As has been said before, the main cast of people to care about isn't just autobots.

It's like saying all the people we care about in xmen(central cast) are fine but the film would be so much better if we care about even more, all the people involved in the action. The truth being all xmen films are guilty of having autobots(see that last one in particular). It's about the central ones. It's not like if Bee died in any one of these movies no one would care. Any film could be improved with more investment in more people but a films failure in this regard isn't measured by the quantity.

I was also surprised to find out lots of people cared about iron hide.

So you mean the films would do more for you if the did this thing you are asking for and as you describe it, better. I was under the impression you were speaking broadly and not just personally. This tends to happen when I read the world 'you'.

Kinda like when someone says, if only the movie screen wasn't black throughout the film, that way 'you' could actually see the movie.

I know of many people that felt plenty when Optimus died. Guess that's that.

So you mean the films would do more for you if the did this thing you are asking for and as you describe it, better. I was under the impression you were speaking broadly and not just personally. This tends to happen when I read the world 'you'.

Kinda like when someone says, if only the movie screen wasn't black throughout the film, that way 'you' could actually see the movie.

I know of many people that felt plenty when Optimus died. Guess that's that.

Well obviously anything in this thread is going to be in subjective territory.

Well obviously anything in this thread is going to be in subjective territory.

In fact any criticism of any movie will be subjective.

It comes in varying degrees.

'I didn't like the movie' vs 'Why is it so hard to make the Autobots/Decepticons engaging characters you emotionally root for/against...'

Both are subjective opinions, the later pertaining to more than just an opinion of the film but rather some quantitative observation. As it pertains to the later, it's not hard at all, cause they actually do, do it. What you mean is why is it so hard for them to make you yourself emotionally root for/against...
The answer to this question takes on a different form from the answer to the initial phrasing. For instance, perhaps it's not the film but yourself. Like I said, plenty of people were affected by primes death and they perhaps did enough to meet this end, you simply require more...

I just tend to get tripped up by phrasing especially when it flies in the face of itself. It's like if someone said "why can't they make the fight scenes in terminator 2 more emotionally engaging?" ummm..the answer being perhaps that one simply cares little for robot action vs that film needs help(lots of people did fine with it).

It's not a matter of subjectivity but rather just what it is you are saying(subjectively)

But if it’s state-of-the-art special effects, endless battle sequences, oodles of explosions, and some pretty dazzling production design you want to see, you won’t walk away from “Age of Extinction” disappointed. If anything, it’s loyal to its roots – a “Transformers” movie through and through. With the previous films in the series making a trillion plus bucks each, the cook clearly didn’t want to mix up the recipe for the fourth instalment. Sure, he’s replaced Shia LaBeouf (star of the original three movies) with Mark Wahlberg, and he’s introduced some funky new Transformers (including cartoon favourites, the Dinobots), but the beats remain the same. It’s more of the same – and for the fans, that’s likely all they want. Right, tiger?